"The tone of the guitar and Sir Richard's gentle, loving touch with it hold forth from the first moment of Tangier Sessions, sitting clear and true in the home-recorded night air above the city. The album sequence is the precise order of the songs as they were conceived and recorded. Rick's all over the neck in the early going while sorting through the dynamics of the instrument -- in fact, guitarophiles, the first couple of songs feature Sir Richard Bishop playing without a plectrum for the first time ever! Towards the end of the first side of Tangier Sessions, Sir Richard and guitar begin to chill out and cut loose in a different way -- arriving in the moment that was imagined for them, they stretch out, finding themselves in open space with fewer changes. This is a place where a player like Sir Richard Bishop can relax while remaining totally focused and present, hearing what the guitar and he are capable of in real time. The discoveries of side one give way to the trilogy of songs that comprise the second side, and the issues presented by 'Mirage' are revisited from another angle, another spot on the map in 'International Zone,' leaving finally a sense of journey completed in the serene moments of 'Let It Come Down.' The narrative that builds as a function of this (noble)man-guitar dialogue gives Tangier Sessions a visceral punch that makes for a singular listening experience, even in the crowded realm of solo acoustic guitar albums. Nobody plays the guitar like Sir Richard Bishop -- and on Tangier Sessions, he's found a guitar that nobody but him plays either."

"THE SYSTEM builds all of the tonal fields, chord changes, scales, and lyrics on this record, creating the framework for the songs with which the musicians engage. Yet THE SYSTEM is open; within the framework, Chasny's own personal aesthetics -- such as the production mode of loud guitars, the order of songs, the editing of length -- were all conscious decisions made to communicate the pieces. The exact same combinatorial patterns used on this record can create infinite results, depending on the choices of the individual. Ben's years of study have produced an operational agent that has not only built all the songs on Hexadic but is also a system anyone can use to restructure their ways of habit. The first thing one notices when listening to Hexadic is how unhinged it all sounds. The album brews and boils with an ominously dark tone in a desolate space, somehow dense with energy, guitar overdriven past the point of sanity, slamming drum accents, vocals cutting through in what seems to be comprised of another, as yet unheard, language. Yet, inside the apparent wild abandon and destruction is a strict internal logic of construction that unveils itself upon listening. This is the majestic dialectic of Hexadic."

"Alasdair Roberts is the name of the new solo record from the well-known Scottish songwriter, guitarist and singer Alasdair Roberts -- his eighth Drag City Records release under that name... Alasdair Roberts' ten songs are sparse, intimate and concise. The focus throughout is on Alasdair's deft acoustic fingerstyle guitar and his voice. The songs are variously elliptical and gnomic, direct and personal, romantic and tender. There are occasional guest appearances from fellow Glasgow-dwellers Alex South (clarinet), Donald Lindsay (tin whistle) and singing quartet The Crying Lion (Alex Neilson, Lavinia Blackwall, Harry Campbell, Katy Cooper), always to great dramatic effect. In response to the economy of the arrangements, Alasdair's voice pitches down on occasion, enhancing the close feeling of this album -- an environment where even the sounding of percussive stick-clicks signals a dynamic sonic shift. Alasdair has always delighted in a good, dark set of traditional ballads -- the kinds of songs which address human mortality in all its grisly manifestations -- but even in the relative isolation of this almost-solo set, Alasdair shows no sign of the misanthrope; his advocacy for the fellowship of man is always unshakeably present."

"What makes On Your Own Love Again new? Everything, and yet everything woven so subtly into the presentation leaves you unaware that you have been modulated upon. The album was recorded entirely by Jessica in the fashion of 'Night Faces' and 'Dreams,' from her first album, and mixed in collaboration with Will Canzoneri. Touched lightly with additional instrumental and vocal parts, the songs ripple beneath the surface with lyrical details that morph almost subliminally from the personal into fantasy. When Jessica's playful nature bubbles up, she sends her voice traveling into strange places to see what it finds there. The music too is deceptively accomplished, providing subtle hallucinatory nuances to the tunes. The orchestral organ stop working in the shadows of 'Wrong Hand,' the reverberant percussion floating through 'Game That I Play,' the clavinet panned out on the side in 'Moon Dude,' Jessica's sudden vocal dip into her lower register on 'Greycedes' -- all pull at the ears, highlighting her unique pop sensibilities with craft and humor, giving the album's inherent romance a greater heft. Perhaps most significantly, On Your Own Love Again was recorded at home -- at places in Los Angeles and San Francisco, over the past two years. This process sands the surface of her more active multi-tracking approach, allowing a sound as delicate and singular as her former recordings. On On Your Own Love Again Jessica is fully alive in a space all her own; with isolation in the breeze, the sound resonant in the natural light and a gauze of clouds in the sky, under which she can relax, unwind and let herself be."

"Joshua's imagery evoked a world of old wine bars and coffee-stained book covers. Honky tonk music and worn out shoes. Elusive, mysterious lovers. His plan was to become a locally-revered lyricist, and it wasn't long before his dream came to fruition. Booking a Tuesday night residency at a piano bar called Marla's, his audience grew steadily, to the point where after only a few months of playing at the club, a line would form down the street. Fans could often be overheard saying 'I hope we get to hear some of his new lyrics' and 'I love his lyrics so much.' Since then, Joshua Rainhorn has never strayed far from his adopted home city. Apart from a few two-week tours up and down the Los Angeles/San Francisco corridor, he continued, and still continues, to play venues all around town. He is respected and sometimes quoted by some of the newer singers/lyricists, and his fan base remains as loyal as ever: the very definition of a Hometown Hero."

"Now that the story of The Source Family is out there, as the subject of an acclaimed book and documentary film (as well as an ongoing series of rare, never-before-released recordings), it's time to turn the light back on the records that made this whole thing a story in the first place. In the 1990s, it was a revelation to discover that there was a series of records made by a hippie cult led by a big Santa Claus-looking guy named Father Yod. It was of further interest that these records weren't simple, predictable light-rock recitals about Jesus -- far from it! Instead, they were darkly psychedelic, stream-of-consciousness jams, with Father and the members of his band (usually The Spirit of '76 and YaHoWa13) reaching together for divine transformation, and often finding it, as Father screamed, pounding kettle drums ecstatically, while the band erupted with coils of enlightenment rock, over and over. Records like Penetration, Contraction, To the Principles for the Children, and I'm Gonna Take You Home were amazing home-recorded documents, adorned with hand-drawn phrases and logos and grainy color shots of what appeared to be truly magical everyday cult life with Father. Super-crazy, inspiring stuff. Savage Sons of Ya Ho Wa is a record that Father doesn't appear on. Well, he doesn't play on the record, but look on the cover -- Yahowa is still in the driver's seat. Musically, YaHoWa13 go it on their own, with Octavius, Sunflower, Djinn, and Rhythm collaborating with Electron, who supplies powerful lead vocals. What's here is a collection of powerful rock songs that will echo in your consciousness, like the opening track, 'Edge of a Dream,' and the refrain 'I want to see/What's going on.' The guttural nature of Electron's vocal sound may recall the name of Beefheart to some, and Electron is occupying the same unconsciousness, free in the communal slipstream, with less blues and more country gospel in his soul. This is one of Isis' favorites of the original Source Family releases, and one of ours too. This is its first LP pressing in decades. Features all of the original artwork, including a really far-out inner-sleeve, plus new inserts with reflections from Isis. These emanations from the original Source are pure, uncut spiritual visions from the mid-1970s, not to be missed."